The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-08-31
THE WOMAN QUESTION.


ton touches the very foundations of socie-
ty. 1t is not a question of suffrags-of
woman's political rights-but it is a ques-
ton of work and wages-bread, clothing,
shelter-a question of living, aud as such
it challenges the acumen of the best
thinkers of the times. It is not often that
the surroundings of working women get to
the public eye and ear, but occasionally
the story is told, and becomes * the
sensation for an hour or day,
like a railroad disaster, and is
forgotten. 1t Is fortunate, it is one of,,the
things for which all people should thank
God, and take courage, that the woman
question in its hideous aspects relates to
the condition OF women in the great cities,
that in the rural districts, in Gods beauti-
full farm land, where the brooks dance and
laugh, where the birds sing, where the
flowers bloom, where the blue sky is not
obscured by smoke, where there are forest
shades, fields OF growing, ripen1ng grain,
where the tasseled corn and the bearded
wheat and grazing herds beautify the land
seape, women are free from the thousand
curses peculiar to the great centers of
population.
The Chicago Inter-Ocean, in ia recent
issue, publishes glimpses of the life work
ing women lead in that great.city of wealth
and poverty, of virtue and vice, of brilliant
light and shadows as dark as those which
deepen the gloom in the valley of death.
1t is said there are ..75, 900 ..workingwomen
employed in Chicago in all classes of work.
About 10000 of this number are engaged
as domestic servants. The laundries Of
the city take 1000 more. The stores and
offices employ fully 5000 females. There
are 10000 females engaged as tailoresses,
| dressmakers, milliners and seamstresses
| generally. The remaining 10000 females
are engaged in all manner of work. II is
stated that the aristocrat of the
girls is the saleswoman or
clerk, and that the scala
runs down to the girls who sort rags and do
other unhealthy work, and it is said that
in the employment of males there is pro-
portionate increase of wages for work that is
unhealthy, but for the girls, this is denied.
Wages range from $12 week down to S.,
though great majority of work girls In
Chicago receive less than S. a week, and
this small wages paid the girls is altogether
insufficient for their proper, decent, honest
malntainence, and from this fact another
evil arises, and it is in the direction of
vice, fact which an incident related By
he Inter-Ocean Samaritan reporter, brings
wildly to light, and which is rendered all
the more repulsiYe because of the in-
tlmation that employers are aware
of consequences and wink at it, in
deed approve it. The story is tol of q
young girl from a country town who
sought employment in Chicago retail
store. Lucky says the Inter- Ocean, she
had friends in Chicago with whom she
made her home. In her quest for EN-.
ployment she went to store where large
numbers of girls were engaged as salesladies.
She saw the proprietor himself and he was
pleased with her appearance, and promis ed
to give her a situation as clerk. She asked
him what wages she would re.
ceive,t and he told her that S.
would be the amount per week
she would receive for the first few months
She said that it was very small pay for ten
hours work per day. Her board was s.
per week, and her car fare go cents more
her washing would cost 30 cents, and she
could not dress herself on the balance
The proprietor remarked that she musl
look elsewhere for her dresses, and then
pointed to brazen-faced girl who wa:
fashily dressed and said: "She is dressed
fine enough, amt she?n Well. all pay
her is S. per week, and she does not com
plain" 1t would be difficult, we tn ink
TO recite an incident more essentially in
famous on the part of an employer, and
such moral and mental deformities are al
together too numerous for the we'll being
of society. 1t seems that Chicago has 8
Protective Agency for women and chill
dreD, and Mrs. Mary Dye, Clerk of the as
sociasioD, discusses the wrongs of working
women as follows:
The man who means to get his living
out Of other people is quick enough to see
that it is safer for him to CHEAT ten
employees out of So each than to defraud :
wealthy customer of $50 The chattel
mortgage fieDd and the sewing machine
robber never disturb the millionaire. The
I rich mans wealth protects bin against
great extortions, aud his influence and
power. the value of his patronage. and the
fear of his report, practically insure him
! against small attempts to dsfraud. But
when o rascal wishes 80 filch few dollars
from the scsnty earnings of a poor woman
he knows that all the chances are ia his
favor What can q poor wDnlza
, dor She calls sgain, taking long walk
after working hoars or sDending mor'
money for car-fsre. Finally she sees tas'
the effort is useless. She desists, goe
without sugar In her tea or leaves her BIZ
another month without shoes for lack @
the scanty pittaucs which mss gona int
the shsrper's pocket. Here the frieudl,
agency stepsin and deus the deliuqneu
, or sues the sharper.
The cases brought to light By the Inter
; Ocean are In many instances most orue
4 snd revolving. But philanthropio womel